EVENT RESULTS EVENT NOTEBOOK POINTS AFTER EVENT ROUND-BY-ROUND RESULTS FINAL SPORTSMAN RESULTS

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SUNDAY NOTEBOOK

 

‘KILLER RUN’ TURNS BRITTANY FORCE INTO GIANT-KILLER IN TOP FUEL FINAL AT LAS VEGAS - A victory over Steve Torrence has been a tremendous and rare feat in the NHRA Top Fuel class for the past five years. 

It isn’t impossible, as Brittany Force proved Sunday afternoon in the final round of the Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. 

But she had to be thinking, “C’mon – David had to fight Goliath only once. And he had to fight only one Goliath.” 

Crew chief Dave Grubnic put one powerful stone into her slingshot in the final round: a 3.718-second, 338.00-mph performance. 

Force let it fly for 1,000 feet, and with that, she brought down a trio of Top Fuel giants: Torrence, Antron Brown, and Tony Schumacher, who represented a combined 15 series championships and 188 victories. 

“This is huge for our team. Man, that was a killer run,” the Monster Energy Dragster driver said after earning her 12th victory. 

It was her second triumph in four-wide format but first at The Strip. She also won the 2019 fall race here. 

The standings got much tighter as the Camping World Drag Racing Series tour travels to Houston in three weeks for the April 22-24 final SpringNationals at Baytown, Texas, before the 1988-built facility will be plowed under for commercial redevelopment. 

Torrence, of Kilgore, heads to his home state as the points leader – by four points ahead of Force. No. 1 Las Vegas qualifier Mike Salinas is in third place, just three points behind Force, and Justin Ashley trails Salinas by merely 27 points. That’s before the series moves to Charlotte for more four-wide action. 

Even Torrence, who had hoped to record his first 2022 victory and tie fellow finalist Antron Brown and class legend Joe Amato at 52 for third on the all-time list, said afterward, “It’s not easy to win out here,” the Capco Contractors Dragster driver said.  “Look at that final.  You pull up, and there’s Tony [eight-time champion Schumacher], Antron [three-time champ Brown], and Brittany [the 2017 titlist]. And then you have Mike Salinas, who’s already won this year, Justin [Ashley, the Winternationals winner], Josh Hart, Austin Prock, Leah [Pruett], and you can never forget Doug Kalitta.  This is as competitive as this class has ever been – and that’s exciting.  That’s what you want – to compete at the highest level against the best there is.” 

As for his own uncharacteristically sluggish start to this season, Torrence reiterated that his crew chief, Richard Hogan, and the Bobby Lagana-masterminded “Capco Boys” have “been working on some things. You can’t just stand still in this sport.  You do that and they’ll just run over you.  They’re trying to stay ahead of the curve, and I think we took a big step today.” 

But Force was not going to let anyone stop her Sunday. She faced Torrence three times, in each of her runs. And he has been considered the master of four-wide racing. He had won six of the past seven four-wide races overall and two of the previous three four-wide races at Las Vegas. 

She let him get only within about six feet (precisely .0126 of a second) of the nose of her Monster Energy rocket. He clocked a 3.756-second elapsed time at 326.71 mph. 

Her winning 3.718-second, 338.00-mph performance was the quickest and fastest of the meet, and her speed was the second-best in Top Fuel history. 

Force owns all but two of the top 12 speeds on record. For the fourth straight event this year, she clocked the fastest speed in the class on this same dragstrip where she set the national speed record (338.17) in the fall of 2019. 

She gave the Top Fuel class its fourth different winner this season, joining Justin Ashley, Mike Salinas, and Tripp Tatum on the list.

Schumacher finished third in the final and Brown fourth. Both were seeking their first four-wide success. 

Brown, who bounced back from an un-Antron-ish DNQ at the Gatornationals in the previous outing, said, “I thought we had something for them in the finals, the way this car has been running this weekend. We made it down the track six straight times and got quicker each lap, but as soon I hit the gas, I felt a cylinder go out. And I knew it dropped a hole, because it felt real lazy to the 60-foot and then it shook the tires. That being said, we did a great job this weekend. To go down the track and be so consistent and improve the performance on each lap after what happened in Gainesville is just the awesome rebound weekend that we needed.” 

And in the winners circle Sunday, she joined reigning champions Ron Capps (Funny Car) and Erica Enders (Pro Stock). Capps toasted his first victory as a team owner, and Erica Enders was crowned the most successful racer in any professional class at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with nine victories. 

“It was not easy out there, and we faced tough competition all day,” Force said. “But we’re excited to get a win like this. You look at that final quad and to get the win, that’s really something to be proud of. It puts a fire under us, and getting in that winners circle, there’s no better feeling than that. 

“It’s been a little bit of a tough start for us, but our guys got the job done. Coming into the season, I knew it was going to be the toughest year yet in this class,” she said. “I see a great future ahead with this team. It’s a great group and the hardest bunch of workers I’ve been around, and I’m so proud of our guys.” 

Torrence, Schumacher, and Brown had no better starts to the season themselves. All four, including Force, were making their first final-round appearances of 2022.

Two racers in each quad advanced in each round. Torrence won his opening-round quad, and Force had the upper hand in their semifinal quartet. 

"To be able to look at that final quad and see the guys that we were good enough to pull up next to and then beat them all, it's something that we're very proud of,” Force said. “I'm proud just to share the lanes with those guys, to be able to race against them. I watched Tony Schumacher when I was out here watching my dad as a kid, so to be able to line up next to him is just something very exciting, and then to turn the win light on is even better. 

"We had an awesome race. We qualified pretty well, No. 2, and we got four qualifying sessions this weekend and three out of the four were pretty dang good, so going in today was just consistency," she said. 

Her John Force Racing team came close to recording a double victory. Robert Hight, driving JFR’s Auto Club Chevy Camaro, reached the final round but finished third to winner Capps and runner-up Matt Hagan after his engine dropped a cylinder early in his run. 

TEAM OWNER RON CAPPS GETS FIRST NITRO FC WIN IN VEGAS - It was a weekend Ron Capps will never forget.

The reigning NHRA nitro Funny Car world champion made the transition from driver to team owner/driver for Ron Capps Motorsports in the offseason.
Then, in only his fourth race in his new role, Capps was in the winner’s circle at the Four Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Sunday.

In the final quad, Capps clocked a 3.914-second pass at 331.20 mph to defeat Matt Hagan (3.924) Robert Hight (3.943) and Alexis DeJoria (3.954).
This was Capps 69th career NHRA national event victory in his NAPA Auto Parts-sponsored machine. It was also his sixth at The Strip tying him for most wins at the facility in the nitro Funny Car class with John Force at six.

“The driver was trying not to make mistakes,” Capps said about himself. “The first lap it was on a heck of a run, and it quit. I thought it ran out of fuel. There was a little problem one of the cars had getting ready to stage and a lot of sat there. I thought if this runs out of fuel it is going to destroy some stuff. We knew the numbers were there and we knew the track was there.

“Every quad was nuts. It was murder’s row in all of them. One great thing and I love racing with Guido (crew chief Dean ‘Guido’ Antonelli) is he will not go up there just to run OK, or just get down the track. He drags a wheel barrel, and he wants to throw down especially with guys like Jimmy Prock. We had the arsenal with (fellow crew chief John) Medlen and our NAPA Auto Care guys and not even bat an eye. They wanted to go toe-to-toe and throwdown.”

Capps, who qualified No. 1 with a 3.883-second elapsed time at 331.45 in Q4 Saturday, leaves Vegas third in the season points standings 40 behind Matt Hagan.

“You don’t expect it,” said Capps about his first win as a team owner in only four races. “We went through this all of last year and Funny Car was the toughest in my career since 1997, I thought. The tightest field. We are seeing it even more this year. You hope and you know have everything we need. Obviously, we have a great sponsor in NAPA and all the things we need that way. We brought some really cool small sponsors on and really, we had everything we need and then in Pomona (the season-opening Winternationals) we went to the finals, and we were No. 1 qualifier there. It is almost too good to be true.

“I knew we would have to earn it (our first win) and I didn’t think it would come at a Four Wide, especially going into that final round. I just love how we are building this team and how Guido has been so great helping me with things besides him being a crew chief and it has allowed Medlen to do his thing which is come up with these great ideas of things we need to try and do. It is crazy. I got a text from Don Prudhomme (Saturday) after the run and those are special moments when people like that send you a text and congratulate you on running well. I honestly didn’t think it would come this quick.”

In the first four races, the Ron Capps Motorsports team has been successful in capturing two poles, a runner-up finish, a semifinal finish, and now, a trip to the winner’s circle.

As meaningful as this victory was for Capps, he already knows where it is headed.

“We are going to give this to Tony and Gail Wilson, who are NAPA owners, they own a lot of stores in Oregon, and they are fantastic people,” Capps said. “He has been fighting throat cancer and he can’t even eat, and he wanted to be at this race. They were at my first banquet when I think we finished eighth and they were at my first banquet when I won my first championship (in 2016). They keep coming and supporting us. That trophy, as special as it is, and I could cut in one million pieces and send it to all these NAPA places, it is going to go to them. My wife and family have been so supportive in this journey, and it is just going to get better. It hasn’t even sunk in yet. I can’t even believe that I’m standing here as an NHRA owner holding a Wally at a Four Wide race. It is beyond comprehension right now.

“I still can’t believe it. Here I am in my 50s living a lifelong dream. I grew up in the sport. It was a pretty cool childhood and never in a million years back then watching Snake and Mongoose and Jungle (Jim) and (Raymond) Beadle and fast-forward in a time machine that I would be holding one of those (a Wally) as a team owner is nuts. It is crazy. It is going to be a fun celebration with all these family members. It is going to be cool. Drag racing is at a good place right now. We have a lot of good, cool teams. There’s a lot of fresh stuff going on right now. It is not just the big four (teams).”

Capps acknowledged the role as owner/driver has been taxing on him at times.

“I know I have aged a few years in a couple of months, and I have had people talk me off the cliff,” Capps said. “I talked to (fellow first-time team owner) Antron (Brown) in January and he said look brother we are going to get to June and look back and laugh at these moments that you are so afraid what was going on and wondering if we could do it and he’s right. All the people who have helped me. It really means a lot.” Tracy Renck

ERICA ENDERS BECOMES WINNINGEST DRAG RACER AT THE STRIP AT LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY - Erica Enders has accomplished plenty in her NHRA Pro Stock career, highlighted by her four world championships in 2014-15 and 2019-20.

Now, she has another line on her decorated resume.

Enders became the winningest driver at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with her ninth victory at the facility Sunday.

Enders’ latest win came at the Four Wide Nationals when she clocked a 6.68-second elapsed time at 206.32 mph to win her quad that consisted of Cristian Cuadra (6.702); Mason McGaha (6.684) and Dallas Green, who broke after staging.

Enders was tied with Top Fuel star Tony Schumacher with wins at The Strip with eight. She has now won in Vegas for four-consecutive years.

“It’s nuts over there (at Elite Motorsports),” Enders said. “We have seven cars under the Elite Motorsports/Elite Performance banner and all the engines are Elite Performances. So, we jump in when we have to. I service the engine on my car with (team owner) Richard (Freeman) and as soon as I was done with that I would run over to Fernando (Cuadra Jr.’s) car and T.J. (Coughlin) had to swing motors this weekend and so did Bo (Butner). It is all hands-on deck, all the time. I think we had roughly 38 to 40 crew guys out her this weekend.

“There are a lot of moving parts, and it definitely takes determination and focus to keep all the fish swimming in the right direction, if you will. It was really good day.”

Enders is in second place in points standings – just three behind Aaron Stanfield, her Elite Motorsports teammate.

“They had my Melling performance Hot Rod tuned up for sure,” Enders said. “We laid down a pretty stellar number there in the finals. Vegas has always been good to me. Even when I haven’t been good out here, we are still able to turn on win lights consistently. It definitely means a lot to me. Four Wide definitely throws its challenges at you, and you definitely have to be paying attention with all the distractions going on up there. It was a long hard day and I’m just really proud of my team.” 

This was Enders’ 35th career NHRA Pro Stock win and second this season as she also won the season-opening Winternationals in Pomona in February.

Enders acknowledged there’s no secret formula for her at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“I’m not really sure what it about Las Vegas,” she said. “The guys have a really great tune-up. Everything changes out here. It is a little bit of altitude, and it is definitely dry and crazy air, so you have to have your tune-up right. You don’t want to be too lean, or you will burn your motor up. I have to give a lot of the credit to my crew chiefs because they have a ton of data her and they do a great job.

“I’m not much of a gambler. I would rather go shopping than gambling, but I love coming to Las Vegas just to drag race and get the heck out of here as soon as I can. I’m thankful for the success we have had here. I scored my first win here with Elite Motorsports in 2014. I won the K&N Challenge on Saturday and came back and won the race on Sunday. That was our first national event win at Elite Motorsports, and it has been quite the ride since. I’m just proud to be their driver.”

Enders said she was driving with a heavy heart with the passing of beloved Pro Mod racer Scott Oksas March 28. Oksas was a member of the Elite Motorsports family.

“He was family,” Enders said. “Scotty was just happy-go lucky all the time. He was the light in every room he walked in. I know it sounds cliché, but the world is going to be a darker place without Scotty. We came in here and we have a grease board in our trailer with things to do and it consistent of racing stuff and all that was on the board this weekend was win Vegas for Scotty. That was goal coming in here and I’m really thankful to have done that. He was riding along with us this weekend, and this was for the Oksas family.”

Enders bounced back in Vegas after losing in the first round at the previous race in Gainesville, Fla., to Bo Butner.

“I took Gainesville really hard,” she said. “I was in a couple race slump. I’m the worst critic. I take a lot of pride in my driving. I have been racing Pro Stock for 18 years and we didn’t have any success the first nine and it has been quite the ride with Elite Motorsports and I’m really thankful for that. It definitely makes going back to normal work easier when you get to take a Wally home.” Tracy Renck

SATURDAY NOTEBOOK 

 

NHRA EXPLORING SPORTS BETTING, KORETSKY: VEGAS OWES ME, TASCA SEEKS TURNAROUND WITH BACK-TO-BACK VICTORIES HERE, MARONEY APPLAUDS FELLOW SINGLE-CAR TEAM OWNERS
 

WILL NHRA BE COMING TO AN APP NEAR YOU? – Tod Mack, the maverick promoter at Maryland International Raceway from 1971-1990, built the first four-wide dragstrip – and established pari-mutuel betting for the fans at his Super Pro and mid-level E.T. Bracket races, for booked-in eight-car Funny Car and Pro Stock shows, and for even a wheel-stander exhibition. One-hundred percent of the proceeds went to charity. 

“I don’t want to see a nickel, and I want to stay perfectly clean in this,” he told the local Jaycees when they helped him set it up. “I don’t need money from this thing. I need the publicity.” For an article Competition Plus published in 2014, he said, “My motive in it was for publicity and promotion and entertainment value, not actually to make money on the handle from the pari-mutuel wagering itself.” 

Mack received plenty of pushback from NHRA founder Wally Parks, who was concerned that the state would step in to control auto racing, and from the then-Governor and Attorney General of Maryland. He blew them all off. He was planning to do it for just one occasion, but after the resistance, he said, “I got pissed. I said, ‘Screw this. I’m going to keep on doing it.’ 

“This was when the sport was really at a downtime. In the early ’70s, the sport was in trouble. We were losing car counts,” Mack said. 

All this is relevant today at the Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with NHRA President Glen Cromwell telling Autoweek Motorsports Editor Mike Pryson in an article published Feb. 19 that the NHRA is exploring the idea of opening the world’s quickest and fastest motorsport to bettors.

Cromwell said, “It is a discussion we are having here. We are working and talking to various companies as we speak. Nothing has been finalized yet, but we are going down that road. We hope to have something here in the near future. We’re perfectly aligned for something like that. It’s two cars going down [the racetrack], and you’ve got one winner and one loser. It’s a perfect setup." 

The move could toss drag racing into the trendy mix of online sports betting and expose it to millions more viewers. This readily could be the blockbuster marketing break the sanctioning body has been seeking. It could hook an audience besides those eager for quick profits – it could develop genuine fans fascinated by the sensory spectacle and sheer engineering triumph of it all.  

“I would love to see sports betting get involved in NHRA. I think it would be great for the sport,” Schumacher said. “It would get the sport in front of additional eyes. And that would be a positive for the sport.” 

John Force, the 16-time Funny Car champion and 154-time race winner (and declared non-gambler), said, “If it’s a way to generate revenue, why not?” 

As the NHRA heads into eliminations for its first of two four-wide evets this year, what are the odds it’s also headed into sports betting? Who knows if the NHRA is close to entering an agreement with a sports betting platform? Cromwell in recent days declined an offer to speak to Competition Plus.

So, it’s unclear if or when that might happen. But to take that step, surely the NHRA would have to address its recent past and institute some new policies to ensure integrity. 

Team owner Don Schumacher said, “It certainly does raise numerous questions, from anybody in the sport even betting. You’re kind of looking at what goes on in all the other professional sports. And I can’t say anybody in our sport does bet. For years, Las Vegas has had a line on the Las Vegas race. I have never bet on it, but I do know that at some of the casinos, there has been a line on the Las Vegas race.” However, he said he doesn’t condone “throwing” or manipulating the outcome of a race.

Schumacher said, “As far as one racer helping another racer out, I have been against that forever. My teams did not operate that way. It just isn’t something you should do to the fans and to your team members.”

Morgan Lucas found out in 2007 just how polarizing a match-up between teammates in pivotal situations can be. Melanie Troxel was his teammate, and she had a chance to take the final Top Fuel spot in the inaugural Countdown to the Championship. They drew each other in the first round at Reading, Pa., the cutoff event to qualify for the playoff, and they decided to race heads-up. Lucas beat Troxel – and was criticized for not allowing her to win. Had he done that, he said, he knew he would be criticized for taking a dive. He was in a no-win situation. 

Other team owners have not been that hesitant. Fans saw that, perhaps aptly, here last fall in the Camping World Drag Racing Series’ most recent visit to Las Vegas. 

At that time, Pro Stock veterans Greg Anderson and Erica Enders were battling for a fifth title. Anderson lost in the first round. Elite Performance Motorsports teammates Enders and Troy Coughlin Jr. met in the semifinals and were neck-and-neck with each other for most of the quarter-mile course. Then Coughlin’s car went silent at about the 1,000-foot mark. That allowed Enders to breeze into the final round with a chance to make up valuable ground on Anderson. 

The move was roundly criticized, and Coughlin said he regrets doing it.  

“Going out there purposely and throwing out the white flag halfway down the track, that’s not acceptable in my book. Maybe in some people’s minds it is. Not on anybody with KB Racing. I do have a problem with people going out there and purposely laying down or whatever you want to call it and giving the race up,” he said. “It’s a tough decision to make when you have multiple team cars, like we both do. It’s a hard decision to make to not do that. But you just can’t do it.  

“I’ve raced 20 years, and I’ve had sponsorship for 20 years. And there’s been 100 times in those 20 years that you’ve thought to yourself, ‘Man, it would be nice I could get a break from one of my own teammates.’ And never once have we made it happen. You can’t do that. The sponsor won’t accept it. The fans won’t accept it,” Anderson said.  

“It looked terrible. It made our class look bad. And I don’t care who’s standing here right now – I’ll tell ’em that same thing: It’s wrong. It’s bad for the class. It’s bad for the sport,” he said. “And whether you’re team cars or not, you have to go out there and race. All these team sponsors have different sponsors on the doors. You can’t do that.” 

Enders had a different spin on the situation.  

She said, “I have one job, and that's to win races and world championships for Melling Performance . . . and all the people that make this possible. But for my boys at Elite Performance and Elite Motorsports, a true teammate is defined by what they do for you, what you do for each other. We’re one family. I'm sick of people and what they got to say. If they want to get a couple million dollars together and come out here and try this, they get to do it how they want to. This is how we do it, and we do it with grace and class.”  

Fellow Pro Stock Countdown driver Matt Hartford expressed his disgust with the race-day ploy: To intentionally shut off against a teammate, I got nothing for ya.”  

At the time, Coughlin justified the result, saying, “This team is a family, and we all know how it works at this point in the season. It happened the other way around in the past with the same teams involved, so now we’ll take these results and head to Pomona to see how it ends.” 

It ended with Anderson getting his fifth championship – and with Coughlin regretting his judgment. 

“It’s part of competition. It’s part of the heat of the battle. I made a split-second decision. It was not how it should have gone down,” Coughlin said. “It’s definitely a strange spot. The way I did that was completely wrong. I would probably not do that again. That was 100-percent my personal error. That was something on my shoulders I will always take 100-percent credit for. It’s part of the competition piece that you live with your whole life. You move on and learn from your mistakes. We’re human. We’re going to [make mistakes]. You learn from them.”

Neither he nor the team was fined.

Arguably the most memorable such incident came in 2009 at Indianapolis, when Tony Pedregon and John Force got into a shouting and shoving match as Force raced Hight and Hight needed to make the Countdown field at No. 10. Force’s car drove out of the groove, Hight won, and ESPN announcer Mike Dunn declared, “The Fix is in!” And accusations flew. The only penalty meted out was a hefty $10,000 to Force – for making contact with an official during the commotion.

Caleb Cox, team manager for Cruz Pedregon Racing’s Funny Car team, said, “That’s something NHRA would have to take a tough stand on.”

A decision to become involved with one or more betting platforms could trigger a shift in the structure of the sport: it could diminish the appeal of multiple-car teams or, conceivably, prohibit them.

In a Facebook Live program last week with The Capital Sports Report, Force said, “If we can’t help each other, why have them?”

Teams still might want to have data-sharing about performance or track conditions for their tune-ups, but manipulating the outcome when teammates were to race each other would, or should, be off the table. So it might affect drivers of new independent Top Fuel and Funny Car teams who might have had visions of expanding in the future, as well as existing multi-car team owners.

“I understand team racing and team concepts,” Cox said. “It’s up to the owner of that team what he wants to do. No different than Formula 1 – if Max Verstappen’s in second and Sergio Perez is in first and Max is racing for the championship, they’re going to tell Sergio to move over and let Max go. If you’re a driver, you’ve got to do what your team owner says. I don’t like that part of racing. Your team should race heads-up. But I’m not part of a multi-car team, so I don’t feel that facet. I would think that the competitor inside of me would be like, ‘I want to win. I don’t want to dive.’ There would have to be something in the rules about that, because that’s one way to manipulate the system.”

Cox considered the scenarios and offered one suggestion. “Just randomly thinking: It would be cool if your multi-car rule was you’re forced to have [only] one Top Fuel dragster and one Funny Car. [It] keeps your interest in both classes, but [with] no opportunities to manipulate.”

That’s a solution to the problem, certainly. But what career-changing upheaval would that cause for a tandem such as Doug Kalitta and Shawn Langdon . . . or the father-son combo of Steve and Billy Torrence, who race together as a family? For Force and Hight, such a rule would have serious business/funding fallout. In addition, John Force Racing would have to decide the futures of Brittany Force and Austin Prock in Top Fuel, again with seismic implications. And it’s unclear what impact new rules might have on technical and data-sharing and marketing alliances such as the one between the Top Fuel operations of Antron Brown and Justin Ashley. They’re separate teams that pool resources in particular areas of operation.

The current case in the NFL of Atlanta Falcons receiver Calvin Ridley serves as a precedent. Ridley, on a hiatus since October 2021 to focus on his mental health, placed bets on his team and consequently is suspended indefinitely and forced to forfeit at least this season’s $11.1-million salary. Baseball’s Pete Rose is a glaring example. And even baseball and American heroes Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, for a while, were punished by the commissioner for taking post-retirement jobs as greeters/ambassadors at casinos.  

So many elements are in play as the NHRA considers jumping into the sports betting business. It’s a tug-o-war between lucrative benefits for the sanctioning body (in both exposure and revenue) and the guarantee of integrity.

But Saturday afternoon, the final four Top Alcohol Funny Car drivers to make qualifying runs simply were having fun when they placed a pretty stout bet on who would turn on the win light in their quad. Sean Bellemeur, Doug Gordon, Chris Marshall, and Shane Westerfield each ponied up $1,000 for the winner-take-all wager.

Bellemeur won the loot and said at the top end, “That was awesome. We need to do more of this.” He said he felt the pressure to go for the win light and the money because his car hadn’t been performing the best so far in qualifying. With his three colleagues standing beside him – and smiling, despite being out a grand apiece – he said, “I hope the NHRA takes a look at this and maybe does some more of this.”

Announcer Joe Castello said his cell phone “was blowing up” with messages from fans saying they wanted to see more of that, that it was fun.

Bellemeur and the fans just might get their wish – but that’s not a safe bet yet.

 

 

 

MIKE ON A MISSION – Mike Salinas has added a pop of color to his traditionally plain-black Scrappers Racing Dragster this season, and that’s for a specific reason. He has broken from his own way of doing business this year, for a higher purpose: to help grow the sport. 

Pep Boys tricked out his livery last month at the Gatornationals, and this weekend he’s sporting another classy look that features the Adams Pool Group that serves the Northern California and Las Vegas areas.

“This year will be the first year that we're going to look for sponsors,” Salinas had said at the Winternationals back in February.

He’s a big believer in – to use Kenny Bernstein’s phrase – “filling the pipeline” and enabling young drivers, particularly young women, to progress through the drag-racing ranks. His daughters Jasmine Salinas (Top Alcohol Dragster winner at the Gatornationals) and Jianna Salinas (Pro Stock Motorcycle winner at the 2019 Finals at Pomona) support his efforts, and their sister Janae has expressed interest in sports-car racing. But his vision – and his funding – goes way beyond that. He sponsors about a dozen Jr. Dragster racers across the country.

The whole concept of bringing on marketing partners to Scrappers Racing is foreign to the self-made San Jose, Calif., businessman. But he is teaching himself to adapt when change is necessary.

“It's very new but what I'm trying to do is, if we want to grow this thing and really help people down the road, we’re going to need some help,” Salinas said.

“We have some plans on how to take this to the next level. If we get help from the outside, it's just going to help all the younger people, because that's what we're going to put the money into. Because I've been doing this for myself, they'll get a bigger bang for their buck with us.” 

TASCA SEEKS BACK-TO-BACK FOUR-WIDE WINS – Bob Tasca III ended the season with a victory, and he had hoped to bring the momentum into this season.

“We did. It hasn't worked out that way yet, though,” he said after not reaching a semifinal round yet in three races.

“We got all the parts and pieces that we had last year. We have a little different clutch package than we had. So we've been struggling a little bit with that,” he said. “Obviously, Gainesville was a big disappointment, only getting one qualifying run and very, very strange weather conditions out there. But the bottom line is this a strong team. We're very early in the season, and we’d like to end this race with a win and build momentum from here.”

Tasca ended Friday qualifying in fourth place with a 3.921-second elapsed time that was just one-thousandth of a second shy of Matt Hagan’s third-place E.T. The happy news was that although Ron Capps matched Tasca’s E.T., Tasca took fourth and Capps fifth on speed. Tasca’s energizing 331.04-mph speed outdid Capps’ 324.12. They were small, incremental victories but victories nonetheless and represent steps in the right direction.

“Big time,” Tasca, who’s seventh in the standings, said. “When you got [crew chiefs] Mike Neff and John Schaffer behind you and those guys working on this car, as a driver and team owner, I get all the confidence in the world that this Motorcraft Mustang – BG car here this weekend in Vegas – is going to do just fine when the chips are on the table here at the end of the year in Pomona.”

Saturday’s qualifying gave him the No. 5 starting spot. He’ll meet Chad Green, John Force, and Jim Campbell in Round 1 of Sunday’s eliminations.

He won the 2021 Four-Wide race here and shared a bit about the mental focus that goes into winning a race with three opponents instead of the traditional one.

“It's a completely different dynamic, obviously, than a traditional race. I don't know if there's anything strategically different,” Tasca said. “I mean, we're trying to go out there and run as quick and as fast as we can, whether we're running one other car or three other cars. The drivers need to definitely be more on their game at the starting line, because you got a bunch of lights flashing that you don't traditionally have. So there's a little bit of getting used to from the driver standpoint. I don't think there's anything different from a crew chief standpoint, because they’re going to go as quick as they can on the surface, the lane that we get to pick. Lane choice here in Vegas doesn't really make a difference. It's such a great racetrack. So we're just going to go out there and try to do as good as we did last year.”

His sponsor this week is BG Products. He said it’s “an oil additive that car dealers use across the country, whether it’s your transmission, engine, brake systems. Pretty much any internal component in a vehicle, they have a service for it. It provides extended life and a great warranty.”

The multi-medallion dealership owner in the Northeast and who is expanding throughout the country said, “We use it across our entire platform. They've been a sponsor of mine for a lot of years. This is the first year that they're going to be a primary on the car for three races. So it's exciting to see them step up and be a primary out here in NHRA.”

KORETSKY: VEGAS OWES ME – Pro Stock racer Kyle Koretsky said he’s energized by his final-round appearance at the previous race, the Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla.

“The momentum is great to come home from the final. We lost to our teammate Dallas [Glenn], so that’s a little bit easier to take,” he said. “But we still want to win. We’re there to win. The momentum is huge for me as a driver to come to Vegas. And I’m very confident in myself. My driving has been good. The team, we’ll improve from today into tomorrow.”

He said, “Vegas owes me. They owe me in all kinds of ways.”

And he’s here to collect.

“First final here I lost to Erica. It’s on my shoulders. I need to get that Vegas win, and to be a four-wide win, would be even cooler. So we're ready and we'll have a car to compete tomorrow and stay tuned.” 

To stay toward the top in the standings, Koretsky said, “The team has to flow together. The driver, I have to have my game face on every run. I make sure I'm doing the same thing so the guys can really tune the car to me, but it's a team effort. It's huge. Pro Stock is the tightest class out here in NHRA, period. That's proven. So we're running with a bunch of guys and girls and anyone can win. So I got to do my job, get to keep my head out of my ass on Sundays and hit that tree and you'll see a bunch of win lights.” 

With teammates such as 2021 rookie of the year Glenn and reigning champion Greg Anderson, that can be a handful, right in his own KB Racing pit. 

“Me and Dallas, we always talk crap to each other,” Koretsky said. “He pushes me, and I feel I push him. He's naturally good on the tree, and he helps me out a lot. So he adds a fuel to my fire and Greg, you can't really talk much crap to him. He's the five-time world champion, so there's not much I could say to him, but we all battle between us in the camp. As long as we're in that final two or final four on Sunday, we did our job.

“It's tough man. I struggle a little bit. But I've been practicing the tree with Danny Northrop [his fellow Philadelphia-area racer buddy] and them. I'm getting better and then Gainesville showed the practice. So continue to keep practicing and continue to keep my range nice and tight, and they'll adjust the car around it.”

The roof of Koretsky’s Lucas Oil-sponsored Camaro pays tribute this weekend to Pennsylvania State Troopers Brandon T. Sisca and Martin F. Mack III, who were killed in the line of duty March 21st, hit by a suspected drunk driver on Interstate 95 in Philadelphia. The memorial painting also remembers a gentleman named Reyes Rivera Oliveras, the third victim in the accident whom the troopers were helping along the side of the freeway. 

“They’re two Troopers that we lost locally back home in Pennsylvania. They lost their lives in the line of duty, and we were unable to make the ceremony they had locally. We're out here racing,” Koretsky said, “so we figured we’d fly them in their honor and for all law enforcement. There’s a heavy heavy-hearted family out there. Crazy loss.” 

HOW SOON WILL TIDE TURN? – It’s no secret that Tony Schumacher, Antron Brown, and Steve Torrence – Top Fuel champions who have a combined 15 titles and in succession have dominated the better part of the past two decades – have had rough starts. But like 2013 champ Shawn Langdon and perennial contender Doug Kalitta, they for varying reasons haven’t gotten much traction in 2022. 

Neither had Leah Pruett, whom many regard as a champion in the making. She, too, has had a frustrating start to the year. But if her performance in Friday’s second session is any example, the tide could start turning for each of them. 

Pruett vowed after a double whammy at Gainesville in the most recent event (losing in the first round of the Pep Boys All-Star Call-out bonus race and failing to qualify), “We’ll figure it out, it’s just going to take laps. I truly have all the faith in this team, and we will get our round wins.” That will have to wait until Sunday, but she got a huge boost Friday with the provisional No. 1 qualifying spot in the Code 3 Associates Dragster. She said she was looking for “some solid confidence-building momentum” with “a winning hand.” And she just might have gotten it this weekend, at least the start of it. 

The Tony Stewart Racing driver, the No. 3 qualifier, will race in a first-round quad against Doug Kalitta, Shawn Langdon, and Rob Passey. 

Schumacher hasn’t gotten out of the second round so far and is in 11th place, but he said, “We’re getting better with each race. Back in Gainesville, we were leading the way in the first round and then just mowed through the clutch. So we know what we have to do. We’ve got to give our car some clutch, and we’ve got to get our Maynard Family Racing Dragster to the finish line under power. It’s been a good car so far this year, but it needs to become a great car. There will be three great cars in the lanes next to me each run, and we’ll just need to pull our weight.” 

Torrence has won two of the previous three four-wide races here. Moreover, the Capco Dragster driver has won six of the past seven four-wide races overall, including four straight at zMAX Dragway at Concord, N.C. (the birth of the four-wide format in 2010). He’s the only driver in a four-wheeled category to win more than twice in four-lane competition. What’s more, he has earned at least one victory from each of the four lanes. 

Initially, Torrence said he “didn’t like [the concept] at all, mainly because it took us out of our usual routine and kind of out of our comfort zone. But when it was obvious that it was here to stay, we did what we had to do to master it. Then we started having success and, well, that’ll change how you think pretty quickly.  I became a really big fan.” 

So, is this where he’ll regain his magic and pull his first 2022 victory out of a yellow winner’s hat as his team continues to refine what he described as “some new stuff”? In the past five seasons, Torrence has won 43 of his past 100 starts, more than twice as many races as any other pro driver. He isn’t that far away from slipping back into his groove: he has scored a pair of semifinals and remains among the top three in the standings. And he took the provisional No. 3 spot in the order Friday. By the end of qualifying, he was seventh, facing a Sunday opening-round date with Brittany Force, Cam Ferré, and Josh Hart. 

Brown, who called the 4-Wide Nationals “a battle royale that I love to be a part of,” has won at the venue three times (2011, 2016, 2017, all in the pre-four-wide format) and been runner-up in three additional visits (2008, 2012, 2013). “I’ve had a lot of success at The Strip . . . but have yet to win a four-wide event [here]. And that’s definitely one I want to check off my bucket list,” the Matco Tools/Toyota Dragster owner-driver said. He looked strong Friday with a tentative No. 5 placing. He slid down to eighth for the final line-up. He and Schumacher will take on No. 1 qualifier Mike Salinas in the first round’s lone trio (rather than a quad).  

Kalitta, 1-3 on race day after three starts, has had his moments of vintage Doug Kalitta. He led the field at Phoenix. But he has Alan Johnson, the 15-time Top Fuel champion crew chief, tuning his Mac Tools Dragster. So it’s likely a matter of time before he lands in the winners circle for his 50th triumph. He’ll start from the sixth spot Sunday. 

Langdon, saddled with a DNQ and only one round-win in the first three races, recovered from a starter malfunction that robbed him of his Q1 run Friday and claimed the provisional No. 8 position. He wound up 11th. 

BODE SITS OUT FRIDAY BUT LANDS NO. 14 – Bobby Bode, the Arizona State University business-administration student, gets a tardy slip. He finally made his first appearance of the weekend in Saturday’s third overall qualifying session after a variety of mechanical problems Friday. 

“Yesterday we had a rear main seal leak, so that's why we didn’t make Q1. And we fired it up for Q2, and then we had all sorts of ignition problems. Started the car about eight times yesterday,” Bode said. “We had Dave Leahy from Jim Head’s team come over and look at everything, help us out, and I can't thank him enough. He sorted everything out, so I think we're good to go today [Saturday].” 

He said he’s relying on previous data this weekend: “We're pretty optimistic. We're going to give it our best shot. Last year here, we made some good runs. So we're going to use the same tune-up, and hopefully it works out.” 

He earned the No. 14 starting berth and must line up in Sunday’s opening round against Blake Alexander, Robert Hight, and Tony Jurado.  

MARONEY CHEERS ON SINGLE-CAR TEAMS – Jim Maroney recognizes that the excitement about new single-car teams might be overlooking that “yeah, there’s ownership change [but] it’s the same teams.” Even so, he’s all for it. 

“I think it’s great that we have so many individual teams. It seems like we have an influx of it this year,” the Gilbert, Ariz., businessman said. “Whether they’re aligned with another big team is kind of irrelevant. We need 50 individual single-car teams.” 

Maroney said the trend is “absolutely” encouraging to those who might be on the fence about launching a team. 

“I’ve had conversations with old guys like myself [he’s hardly “old,” at age 53] – they’re getting older and they’ve finally gotten a few dollars to their name and ‘Hey, this has always been a dream. What do you think about doing this?’ My first advice is ‘Don’t get in over your head. Set a budget.’ I don’t finance anything, personally. Been racing my whole life. It’s a hobby. It’s a joy. I won’t mortgage my house to put a new chassis into the car. So that’s the first thing I tell them: ‘Do your thing. Set yourself a budget and stick to your budget. If it means you get to run only two races because you blew everything up, worry about it next year.’ 

“The single-car teams, the one-man shows, I think it’s good for the sport because we’ve got more people out here. I think it’ll make racing more competitive. It may not in final rounds,” he said, “but those first couple of rounds of eliminations you’re going to have names that are not big names, because they’re going to start going rounds. 

“So, I think it’s going to make the group more competitive as a whole. I’m not going to tell you that I’d like to be that guy – but I like to think I’m going to be that guy. Why not me? I’m not here to collect a paycheck of any kind. We’re racers. You can’t even break even with a paycheck. I’m a racer at heart. You walk around my pit, you might see some things tat aren’t quite as nice as the big teams’. But when I pull up to that starting line, I honestly feel like I got as good a shot as anybody to win that round – or I wouldn’t be here,” Maroney said. 

Actually, Maroney’s program is in better shape than ever. He purchased equipment from the meticulous and discerning Bill Miller, the Carson City, Nev., entrepreneur who has retired from fielding a Top Fuel team. 

“We’re better off than we’ve ever been” Maroney said. “We’ve got better parts, more parts than we’ve ever had, going into this year. And the bigger teams do help me out a little bit, being able to buy parts from them as they cycle things out.”  One example is supercharger belts, he said: “The big teams put one run on the belts. They allow me to buy the belt, and I put one more run on it, then I get rid of it. I’m running one-run belts. That’s better than having a 10-run belt on my car and having a chance of losing one. Things like that I appreciate.” 

He did say that some of the new team owners have it a bit easier than he does, even though they both are regarded as equals on paper. 

“Them taking ownership of those teams is probably easier – and maybe I’m wrong . . . no offense – than me being a team owner and having to build my own operation of volunteer [crew] guys. It’s still easier to take the sponsors they already have and continue that relationship,” he said. 

Maroney’s dragster sits much of the year in Arizona because he lives within his means. He could make money renting it out, but the notion of that makes him a bit squeamish, he said. 

“I get people who call me about that: Would I be interested in renting my car to them?” he said. It would have to be a huge dollar figure to rent my car, because if something was to happen, I’ve got to be able to replace everything. A second car I might feel a little different about, because if something was to happen, you wouldn’t lose the primary [car].”  

ASHLEY EFFORT FOR UKRAINE RELIEF NETS $30,000-PLUS – Justin Ashley and 75 of his social-media followers have raised $30,000 in donations to the Ukrainian United Nations Crisis Relief Fund during the past two weeks.

The parent company of his primary sponsor Phillips Connect spearheaded the fundraising effort. Phillips Europe, located in Poland, 280 miles from the Ukrainian border, has more than 60 Ukrainian co-workers,. The team there is prioritizing relief for their families, including medical supplies, legal support, basic necessities, housing, and more. In addition, the company is extending support for humanitarian efforts to all refugees. To fund their efforts, Phillips created two ways to donate, and they matched all employee donations – as well as the donation Ashley raised through his NHRA promotion. 

Each of the 75 donors has his/her name on the front wing of Ashley’s Phillips Connect Dragster powered by Vita C Shot. Through social media posts, Ashley offered the chance for donors to add their name to his 11,000 horsepower race car at this weekend’s Four-Wide Nationals. The  minimum donation was set at $100. 

Ashley said, “I was inspired by the passion of Phillips CEO Rob Phillips, who considers everyone who works at Phillips part of his family. I completely agree with Rob when he says when a family needs help, we step up. I am proud to represent Phillips Connect and the entire Phillips family. I want to thank everyone who donated, and we are looking forward to the race this weekend to continue to raise awareness.”

MILLICAN HAS HIS BEST START OF YEAR – With Mike Kloeber out as crew chief and Jim Oberhofer replacing him, driver Clay Millican put his Parts Plus Dragster into the top half of the qualifying order for the first time this season. He’ll start eliminations Sunday from the No. 5 slot, by far his best position of the year, thanks to a 3.757-second elapsed time at 327.35 mph in the final session Saturday. 

“That run kind of surprised me a little bit,” Millican said, “and I may be in trouble. I was told take it to 900 foot on the last run, and he didn't say anything this run. I’m like, ‘Well, this feels pretty good. So we're not going to go 900. We’re going to go to 1,000. We stomped on that loud pedal, and it was just a nice, smooth, clean run, and it's exciting. I mean, it's a lot of changes, a lot of things going on.” 

Oberhofer said he is “just trying to learn. I've been around this car the last few years, and I just wanted to kind of take a slow approach and not hurt parts and just really learn what we're doing. But I can't say enough about Doug Stringer, Clay Millican, Donna Millican, and Lance Larson and the whole Parts Plus team.” 

And he gave a shout-out to crew member Kaylynn Simmons. Oberhofer said, “And I tell you what, that girl, Kaylynn, I've got doing the clutch, she is something special, let me tell you.” 

Millican took the chance with his turn in the spotlight to draw attention to his grand-neice Zoe and the fact that Saturday has been World Autism Day. “I love my little grand-niece Zoe, and I love all the people here.” 

PRO-AM DAD-SON DUOS – Chad and Shawn Langdon (Stock and Top Fuel, respectively) aren’t the only pro-am father-son combo to be competing this weekend. Funny Car’s Chad Green has been watching son Hunter Green’s NHRA debut in the Top Alcohol Dragster class. Hunter Green, driving for Randy Meyer Racing after making test passes in the preseason at Phoenix in both that car and Buddy Hull’s Top Fuel dragster, qualified ninth Saturday in his category. Dad Chad didn’t fare as well. He’s 13th in the Funny Car order. 

PROCK STILL SEARCHING – Austin Prock and the Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist Dragster ran into tire smoke on Friday’s first qualifying pass. In the second run, the engine dropped cylinders and he had to shut it off early. That left him No. 14 in the line-up. With just 15 cars for the 16-car field, Prock was in no danger of being bumped. But he wasn’t thrilled with the car’s performance. 

“We had another rough start to the weekend. This Montana Brand dragster is just having some mechanical issues and we’re trying to get them all sorted out and get all our ducks in a row. Kind of confused on why we dropped a cylinder,” he said after Friday’s action. 

“We’re looking forward to having a good start with two more runs of qualifying. Having four runs here is definitely going to help our whole situation. 

“Hopefully we can make two quick passes,” he said Friday night about Saturday’s chances, “but nothing really matters until Sunday.” 

He got two more looks at the track Saturday and finished qualifying in 12th place, put in a first-round quad with Justin Ashley, Jim Maroney, and Clay Millican. 

PEP BOYS CALL-OUT ON ICE – Brittany Force had the upper hand last month in the Pep Boys All-Star Call-Out specialty race at Gainesville, Fla., but the rainstorms doused her momentum. The remainder of the event is on hold until September at Indianapolis, where her Top Fuel class will steal some of the spotlight from the Funny Car class as it approaches its own version of the $80,000-to-win event. Force ran low elapsed time of the opening round, so she gets the call-out for the semifinal round. 

She’s mum about who among the other first-round winners - Justin Ashley, Mike Salinas, or Steve Torrence – will be her choice for her next opponent. But she did say she was “bummed” to have to wait for the season’s biggest payday to play out. 

“If it were up to me and my team, we would have finished it that weekend,” Force said. “But with circumstances of weather coming in, the schedule changed. That’s just how it is for all of the teams. We have to continue it in Indianapolis. Now I think it’ll be big hype, because you’ve got the Funny Car Call-Out and the Top Fuel. So it’ll be all of us once again [like it was in the days of the Big Bud Shootout, the Skoal Showdown, and Traxxas Shootout]. 

“But it’s a little bit of a bummer,” she said. “You get into the hype of things. You get into the momentum of it. And you’re excited. You’re pumped up. Then you’ve got to put it on hold for a few months. It’s fine. We’ll regroup when we get to Indy – and I still plan on winning this thing.” 

Her John Force Racing colleague Robert Hight, who’s awaiting his turn at the payoff in the Funny Car class, said the fact his category’s Pep Boys All-Star Call-Out was set for much later in the year is “a good thing,” because “by Indy, you’d better have your act together. After Indy is when the Countdown starts, and that’s when things get serious. I love Indy. It’s a tradition. It started with the Big Bud Shootout, to have all that in Indy. 

“We kind of got a taste of it, with watching the dragsters and how it all works. Indy’s a long way away. I just hope that my Auto Club Chevy is in the ballgame then.”  

 

FRIDAY NOTEBOOK
 

FORMER STARTER RICK STEWART PASSES AWAY, ALEXANDER PAYS TRIBUTE TO DYLAN CROMWELL IN NO. 2 EFFORT, DÉJÀ-VU FOR FERRÉ AS HE GETS BACK ON TRACK 

FORMER STARTER STEWART PASSES AWAY – Rick Stewart, the former NHRA official starter for more than 15 years, passed away Friday in his home state of Texas following an extended illness.

Nicknamed “The Ice Man,” Stewart was a fearless racer in the days of Top Fuel slingshot dragsters and subject of the 1965 documentary “7 Second Love Affair” before becoming only the second starter for the NHRA. Less than one month ago, March 10, he was inducted into the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing’s International Drag Racing Hall of Fame.

Stewart stepped into the hard-to-fill shoes of the legendary Buster Couch in 1996 and became a legend himself with his usually easygoing manner as he stood between the lanes and maintained order on the dragstrip for 15 years. He retired at the end of the 2011 season. “It was just an honor and pleasure to be the one to follow behind Buster Couch,” Stewart told Competition Plus in 2012. 

“I really enjoyed drag racing (and) still do,” Stewart told Mike Griffith for a 2017 article in Bakersfield.com. “I got to meet so many people. It was a great experience.”

Stewart began attending the races at Famoso drag strip in the early 1950s. By 1963, he had teamed with Gene Adams and John Rasmussen to campaign a Woody Gilmore car that made for a very potent driver/tuner combination. Stewart retired from driving in 1971. He became a part-time starter for NHRA in 1995 and was hand-picked by the legendary Buster Couch as his replacement when he retired in 1996.

Writer Mike Bumbeck, in a November 2011 article in Hemmings magazine, said, “Rick was the focus of one of the best 52 minutes of drag racing documentary ever made. Written by Bob Abel, shot by Les Blank, and with a soundtrack from Canned Heat, 7 Second Love Affair followed Rick and crew around the drag strips of '60s Southern California in a journey through the apex of SoCal top fuel drag racing. We spoke with Rick a few years back about the time and the movie, and he confirmed that drag racing was in fact the hot setup then. 

"A typical weekend would be Friday night down at Carlsbad, Saturday night at Lions Drag Strip, Sunday from 11-3 p.m. at San Fernando, Sunday afternoon at Fontana. Eighty top fuel cars would show up to qualify for eight spots and $1,000 to win. We were just thrilled we were getting $25 or $50 a round," the article said. 

Bumbeck wrote that Stewart “retired from Top Fuel driving on the top end of the quarter-mile while testing some new tires in his hometown of Bakersfield, Calif. He quoted Stewart as saying, ‘I was smoking 'em down the dragstrip about the fourth of fifth run of that day. I pulled the parachute. We had set a track record for elapsed time and speed. When I pulled the parachute, there were three bars in the back, right behind me, the driver. Hooked to those three bars is some chromoly plate. Hooked to that plate are the seat belts and shoulder harnesses. The plate broke loose. Me and the aluminum seat went underneath the roll booth. Just me and the aluminum seat and the parachute. I went from about 200 miles per hour to zero in about 300 feet, and I walked away. I said 'That's it. ‘Bye!'” 

After that, Stewart preferred the bone-shaking, ear-splitting position between two race cars at the starting line. He regarded it as the best seat in the house. 

Mark Lyle replaced Stewart, and when Lyle passed away unexpectedly in March 2016, Mike Gittings stepped into the role. 

Gittings said Friday, “When I met him in Texas, he said, ‘It’s a 2x4 reunion.’ That – ‘2x4’ - refers to No. 2 Chief Starter and No. 4. I watched them all: Buster, Rick and, of course Mark [his mentor],” and we always worked together. He loved drag racing and being a chief starter.” 

TRYING TO RUN?! – Funny Car team owner Jim Head made the understatement of the day Friday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after his driver, Blake Alexander, recorded a 3.913-second elapsed time at 324.51 mph during the opening day of qualifying for the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals. 

That was slightly slower than top-qualifier John Force’s 3.887-second pass, and it held up for the provisional No. 2 spot. 

With a tribute on the car to Dylan Cromwell, his crew member who lost his life in a highway accident near Indianapolis on the way to this racetrack last October (the month he was celebrating his four-year anniversary with the Brownsburg, Ind.-headquartered team), it was the perfect time to perform well. Cromwell’s parents, Shane and Tiffany, and his older brother, Kevin, are in attendance from Scobey, Mont., this weekend at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. 

This Saturday would have been Dylan Cromwell’s 24th birthday. 

FERRÉ BACK ON TRACK – Top Fuel driver Cameron Ferré didn’t make his season debut until Friday’s second qualifying session. Expecting to kick off his season in the Paton family’s dragster in the opener at Pomona, Calif., he found out at the 11th hour that funding for their planned 10-race season had fallen through.

“They [prospective sponsors] backed out of what they committed to. That kind of left us parked. I mean, everything like keys are in the ignition just waiting for the funding to go,” Ferré told Competition Plus’ Tracy Renck.

“I mean, it's been one of those things that, you have the highlight of your career, and then you have an offseason thinking that everything is good to go,” Ferre said. “Then, it just kind of throws into park on the freeway. And I didn't really like that.

“Things happen. That's racing. This is a business. The sponsor decided to do different stuff or to cut budget, and I get it, you know? So, it's just a matter of finding a new replacement,” Ferré said.

After sitting out three events, he got an unexpected chance to strap back into a dragster. Terry Haddock, who had put him in a Top Fuel car before, invited him to run at Las Vegas. And Ferré was happy to accept.

“He called me and said, ‘Hey man, I want to run this car in Vegas. Are you available? Are you interested?" I said, ‘Yeah, of course, I'd love to help you out.’ He's always been good to me, and I'm happy to help him. He wants to put some runs on his car, and it's a newer car to him. He wanted somebody in the car that has a little bit of experience and just to go out there and make sure nothing silly happens. And I appreciate him thinking of me.”

When he made it to the starting line at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Ferré posted a 6.055-second elapsed time that put him last among the 15 entrants. So with a less-than-full Top Fuel field this weekend, Ferré is assured a starting spot for Sunday’s eliminations.

He said he’s “still seeking new things with that (to drive for the Patons). We have some good stuff showing up and got some opportunities that we might be back out with Paton shortly.”

He said he’s hoping to race for the Patons at the April 29-May 1 Charlotte event. That’s a four-wide event, as well, so this weekend’s seat time will refresh his memory about that style of racing.

As for Haddock’s dragster, Ferré said, “They're just getting it all kind of dialed in and squared away. And the fact that the car is available for rent, for people that want to learn how to drive a Top Fuel car and get their license and race some races, that's what that’s what the program's all about for him. He just wants to put a couple more laps on it. Mostly just run it, show that it's out there and available. As of right now, it's just a one-off deal and I was going to be there anyways because my wife (Angelina) is racing Super Comp.”

IMMERSED IN THE COMPANY – Following the Gatornationals, Justin Ashley and Davis Motorsports announced the extension of their Top Fuel team’s sponsorship with Phillips Connect through the end of the 2022 season. It originally was a three-race trial program, but both sides saw immediate success and opted for a long-term deal. 

Ashley has been outstanding from coast to coast so far this campaign. He’s second in the standings. His race-day record is 6-2, with a victory at Pomona, Calif.. and a semifinal finish in Race No. 3 at Gainesville, Fla. 

So now, with longtime support from Chip Lofton, the car is known as the Phillips Connect/Toyota Dragster powered by Vita C Shot. 

“We originally chose to partner with Justin because of the culture fit with our team,” Rob Phillips, founder and CEO of Phillips Connect, said. “We immediately saw he was in sync with our company culture and objectives. He came in early and spent a week in California learning about our products, sitting in on customer Zoom meetings, and performing product installations. He was sincerely interested in learning why our products and company existed, and the extensive value that our products bring to the transportation industry.” Justin knew that by creating a deeper understanding, he’d be much more valuable as a brand ambassador for Phillips Connect.” 

Ashley, who has built his program on maximizing business-to-business relationships, said, “I loved spending time with Phillips Connect at their headquarters. It was a great opportunity to immerse myself in the company, their products, and the culture they’ve instilled within the organization. I believe it’s important to know about the products and people you’re representing. This gave me real insight into everything they do and the reasons why they do them. Loved meeting all the employees and staff members.” 

The three-time winner is competing in his third four-wide race this weekend, and he called it “a great test of concentration.” He said, “The four-wide races are great because they have a tendency to be unpredictable. Anything can happen with 40,000 plus horsepower on the starting line.” 

This is one occasion when his team’s technical alliance with Toyota teammate Antron Brown will be crucial for his crew chief tandem of Mike Green and Tommy DeLago.

“Mike and Tommy have a long history of experience and expertise. They’ve seen and done everything in the sport,” Ashley said. “Being able to work closely with Antron’s team and their collective of crew chiefs, in addition to that expertise and experience, is crucial to our success. Our Phillips Connect/Toyota/Vita C Shot team has been doing a great job. Dustin Davis has put together a great group of guys on and off the racetrack. We are excited about the start of the season and know we have a lot more work ahead of us.” 

 

WE HAVE WITNESSES, DOUG – All too often, it’s only when a person suffers a setback that he learns just how many friends he has or how his colleagues feel about him. But the happy news is that during a recent Zoom call among Toyota-sponsored Top Fuel drivers, Doug Kalitta found out that none of his seven Pep Boys All-Star Call-Out competitors would want to take him on in a pedalfest with their dragsters. (That’s a compliment.) 

Antron Brown gave Kalitta an especially nice tribute, as if he were introducing him for a Hall of Fame induction. 

Brown said, “Douggie, I call him The Silent Assassin. That joker’s not many words [but] he puts that helmet on and he sits in that car . . . that joker beat me in Topeka, Kansas, with his car sideways . . . like, ‘AB, I’ll see ya!’ I was like, ‘Doug, I see your black Goodyear tires next to my car.’ And he’s still wide open. That’s how vicious that man is. 

“He just keeps that thing in the groove, brother, like he’s flat-trackin’. He’s got a lot of experience. He can leave on anybody in the class. He’s sharp, and he’s aggressive,” he said.  

“When I come up to run Doug Kalitta, I’ve got to come up with my A-plus Game,” he said. Using the “throw everything at him but the kitchen sink” analogy, Brown said, “I’m diggin’ in the sink. I’m pulling the drain. I’m even pulling tile up off the floor and throwing it in there, trying to get after him and beat him.”
 
The otherwise talkative Brown said, “But when we line up, we’re just not outspoken. We’re not the kind to go talk junk. We try to let our actions speak on the racetrack.” 

Kalitta did that in Friday’s opening qualifying session, clocking low elapsed time at 3.759 seconds (at 325.37 mph) in his Mac Tools Dragster. That lasted until Leah Pruett served notice that she is not going to settle for substandard performances going forward. She swiped the tentative No. 1 qualifying position from Kalitta with a 3.741-second pass at 326.79. 

 

FAITH IN TOBLER, SELF – Austin Prock, who hadn’t raced in a four-wide format since his rookie season of 2019, brought up the rear in the Top Fuel class in Friday’s opening session. But as he said before the event started, he needed “a few more runs under our belt.” He said, “I think the whole package is there. We’ve just got to get all our ducks in a row, and the thing will be right there in the hunt with any of ’em.”

Prock said he’s still a little bit awed by his crew chief, Rahn Tobler: “It’s still surreal watching him walk into the trailer. He’s bringing a wealth of knowledge. He’s been a crew chief since the [19]70s. He’s bringing a lot of parts and pieces to make sure this thing functions every time it goes to the racetrack, being prepared. All those little things add up to those wins on Sunday. When he was racing with Ron Capps, he wasn’t always the quickest car, but he brought home a lot of Wallys because they were always prepared. The thing always went down the racetrack and they raced their opponents. I’m looking forward to the rest of the season with him. 

“You know, we’re just getting the ball rolling,” he said. “We’re three races in [now four], still working out some bugs, but I have no doubt in my mind that me, Tobler, and Joe Barlam are definitely going to bring home some hardware this year.”   

That’s quite a statement, considering Prock also said, “There’s a huge amount of competition this season, probably stacked up to be one of the greatest Top Fuel seasons ever. The crew chief-driver lineups are stout, and there’s probably going to be 10 very competitive cars. So just staying in the top 10 [will be key]. You just look at these first three races, first-round match-ups could be final rounds. It gets you all amped up to work harder for it.” 

FATHER, SON COMPETING – Chad Langdon, father of Top Fuel racer Shawn Langdon, is competing this weekend in the Stock Eliminator class. Chad Langdon had an .009-second reaction time in his opening qualifying session. 

His son, considered one of the best “leavers” from the starting line, didn’t get a chance to do that in the first Top Fuel session Friday. His DHL Dragster had a mechanical glitch and was pushed from the line. 

Crew chief Kurt Elliot said the problem was a starter malfunction but said, “When we get this monkey off our back, this car’s going to run good, guarantee it.” 

Langdon rebounded in the second session to take the No. 8 berth overnight.